Washington State Department Of Licensing Possible Cyberattack Breach
By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: February 6, 2022 02:00AM UTC
Last Modified: February 6, 2022 02:00AM UTC
WASHINGTON STATE - The Washington State Department of Licensing says that they observed irregular activity on one of its systems last month and that personal data from professional licenses might have been breached and leaked out to hackers.
The licenses that may have been breached include over 250,000 professional licenses according to The Seattle Times. The Department of Licensing stated that on January 24th it detected suspicious activity on one of its online systems and immediately shut its Professional Online Licensing and Regulatory Information System, or POLARIS.
The information in the system that may have been breached to hackers "may include Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and other personally identifying information".
The Washington State Department of Licensing says that after it detected the suspicious activity it contacted the Washington Office of Cybersecurity as well as the Attorney General's Office and 'nationally recognized cybersecurity experts' to carry out an investigation on the potentially infected system.
The Times says that the shutdown of POLARIS is making licensing procedures more complicating for those that are wanting to apply for a license, or modify a license that they currently own.
Department of Licensing spokesperson Christine Anthony put out a statement regarding the matter saying "There are likely more records that may be identified while conducting our investigation".
